GRUDGES

Never ask God to show you your sins unless you mean it.

This evening while walking on the treadmill I looked through the window, up to the top of our hill, the end of our property line. On the other side of it sits a beautiful, three-story home with pool, gardens, pottery studio and wine cellar. It now is empty, shades drawn. The owners are divorcing.

I began to pray for the couple and their adult children. When I came to the wife, I asked God to send someone to reveal His Word to her.

Immediately what flashed through my mind was, “I did…you…twenty years ago.”

It was shortly after the family arrived in our neighborhood. The mother and daughter knocked on our door. They were selling Girl Scout cookies. I made some excuse for not buying any and graciously shut the door on an opportunity to build a relationship. The reason for my action was that I was holding a grudge against the couple.

When they moved in they demanded that we cut our trees so that they would have a better view. When we declined, they approached my husband, Len, with a compromise. If he (my husband was a licensed forester) would remove our trees (100 + in which I had pictured our grand children climbing and building forts) then our neighbors would provide the machinery to till our land. Len cut down the trees but we never saw the machinery. Plus, water from their garden often ran down our hill flooding the grapes that Len did plant.

Amazing, for years I only saw the injustice of my neighbors’ actions and not my sin of holding on to resentment. I thank God that forgiveness and release from guilt is only a confession away.

While reading this, did God remind you of a missed opportunity to build a relationship through which He could work? Is the door still open? Go for it! I shut mine and have lived to regret it and confess it.